Wallington, Shaw Green and Redhill

The walk leaves the church and goes along a wooded green lane to reach Wallington Common Nature Reserve, an ancient wood where roe deer can often be seen. It is a fascinating area of ancient trees, adorned with violets, primroses, and bluebells in spring. Dog's mercury grows in abundance.

On the wall of the old forge in Redhill there is a plaque commemorating the 19th-century sickle manufacturer James Field. The almost hidden burial ground on the right is the site of the earliest non-conformist chapel in Hertfordshire, dating from 1720.

The writer George Orwell moved to a 300-year-old cottage in Kits Lane, Wallington, from lodgings in Wigan in April 1936. It had formerly been the village shop and he reopened the shop to help pay the rent. The mornings were reserved for writing. He lived there on and off for four years. The Road to Wigan Pier, Orwell's study of northern working-class life, and Homage to Catalonia, describing his few months fighting in the Spanish Civil War, were written during this time. In June 1936 he married Eileen O'Shaughnessy in the local church.

Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.